Playing the Field: Shannon Smyth

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First Republic of Ireland Senior Match again Holland August, 2010

In Playing the Field, we profile women who are making an impact in the world of sports, either in competition or behind the scenes. For this installment, we spoke with professional soccer player and coach Shannon Smyth.

As her club team wrapped up its season in Norway by avoiding relegation but not making the playoffs and the Irish national team on which she’s been a fixture since 2010 failed to qualify for the Women’s World Cup, Shannon Smyth, 27, decided to hang up her soccer cleats—as a player, anyway—and return to the Milwaukee area.

It was a decision the Mequon native had been weighing for some a while and the timing seemed right. At the next World Cup she’d be 31, and she doesn’t think she wants to delay the rest of her life, or be away from her family, that long.

Ireland celebration 1-0 over Germany in 2015 World Cup Qualifiers

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But while her playing days may be over, it’s unlikely you’ll find Smyth far from the soccer pitch. Her passion for coaching is evident in the care with which she speaks about her coaching opportunities. While many female players in leagues around the world have to pick up additional jobs to supplement their income, that wasn’t the case for Smyth. She calls coaching a privilege and she relishes her ability to do so. Would that every young player were to be coached and mentored by someone with as much fervor and dedication that Smyth shows.

“It has been instilled in me to leave every place I go better than it was when I arrived,” she said via email. “At Amazon FK, that meant on the field as a player and off the field as a coach.”

Smyth’s soccer-playing career began at age six as a way to excise bundles of energy. Despite a handful of other sports weaving their way through her childhood, Smyth says they always took second-place to soccer. Her parents likely knew she was headed for a career in soccer before she was able to express the desire herself, Smyth admits, saying her mom recalls her being a natural with a ball at her feet from a young age.

Amazon Grimstad FK v Stabaek 2014 - dual against Ingrid Stensland, Norwegian National Team captain.

Johan Tønnevold

She joined the Milwaukee Kickers and came in at a time where there were girls teams, but not always enough players. She joined a team that combined three age groups—U10, U11 and U12—and played against U12 teams. She says they lost every game their first year together, but she can’t recall losing another game as a youth player in the state of Wisconsin. She credits the club director, former Milwaukee Wave player Pete Knezic, with creating a unique environment and she says that losing every game forced her and her teammates to focus on the details and look for small victories.

"What we built has lasted me a lifetime—technical skills and a mentality to appreciate the details,” Smyth said.

After high school, she attended the University of Louisville, where she tallied 15 goals and nine assists over her career and she said she knew she wasn’t done playing soccer. At the time, her options for post-collegiate professional soccer in the U.S. were limited, so she decided to look at playing options overseas.

“I couldn't imagine ending my career in a semi-pro summer league. I had bigger plans and wanted to play for the Republic of Ireland Women's National Team. I sent my player resume to multiple teams in various countries and landed in Norway with a contract in the professional women's league, the Toppserien. It wasn't until half-way through my first professional season that I finally got the call to join to the senior team in the final leg of the 2011 World Cup Qualifying campaign and earned my first cap,” she said.

Republic of Ireland v Israel August, 2010 World Cup Qualifiers

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Smyth’s father was born in Dublin and immigrated to the United States in his 20s, granting her and her siblings dual-citizenship and allowing her the ability to compete for the Ireland Women’s National Team.

“My father was a rugby and track and field man,” Smyth said. “After I received my first international cap for Ireland, I took my jersey and my father's track and field jersey and framed them together. It was a really special moment for me. But soccer is not Ireland's main sport. It definitely has its place, but Gaelic football, rugby and even hurling are more near and dear to my father's generation. Over just the last 30 years soccer in Ireland has made tremendous strides and with more supporters and respect for both the men's and women's side. But my father is very proud that I have been able to put on the green jersey. My whole family is. My brothers and I were raised to be educated about our Irish heritage and to be passionate about it. I am first-generation American on my father's side and third-generation American on my mother's side and because of my father, I have dual-citizenship which allows me to compete for Ireland. So, it’s not to say that I am not a proud American, I very much am! But there is no doubt I have Irish blood.”

Smyth has played with Amazon Grimstad FK in Norway since 2011. Never content to merely be a player, she knew that growing the game and passing on the skills she’s learned were as important as what she was doing on the pitch.

In efforts to grow the game and in an exclusive association with Amazon Grimstad FK, Smyth launched the club's first-ever girl's only soccer camp and was appointed Academy Director at Amazon FK. In 2013 launched the club's Amazon Fotballakademi for girls.

As a teenager in the Milwaukee area, Smyth taught summer soccer camps and she says she still used the drills and techniques she learned there when teaching young players.

“I feel I have a massive responsibility when I am coaching to give it 100% because that could be the day I unlock a new level of the game for my players—or maybe that day it’s just one player,” she said. “Simply put, sport is a microcosm of society and I think coaches have a unique place to not only teach the game, but instill certain values in our players. We don't always get it right, but when we do it's a compelling and contagious force.”

Final match for Amazon

Johan Tønnevold

Smyth doesn’t know exactly what comes next for her, whether it’s an opportunity for coaching through U.S. Soccer or the Football Association of Ireland or something completely different. We spoke before Thanksgiving, and she said she was looking forward to flying home for the holiday and spending time with her family. Her career has afforded her the luxury of much international travel.

“Traveling has been one of the absolute luxuries of my life,” she said. “Soccer has brought me to more than 20 countries and I have lifelong friendships rooted all over the world. Moving abroad was a choice to give myself the chance to see if I could excel at an international level. My daily environment became competing with and against the best. It wasn't always easy. It’s more difficult that some expect to be able to immerse yourself in another culture, language and lifestyle. There are things that you just cannot predict, but then again soccer has prepared me my whole life to deal with the unexpected; to find a way, to find a solution. That is the game.”